The title pretty much says it! I’d like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y’all’s recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I’m also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun
A few years ago, I devoured the Ascendant series by K Arsenault Rivera. Basically a soft magic universe based on Mongolian and Chinese mysticism set in a different world, but the parallels are pretty obvious. The main focus is the sapphic romance between the two leads, but It does a good job of mixing world building, epic battles and military maneuvers, demons and magic, and relationships. I highly recommend it.
Maybe Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy? I feel like it fits the soft magic definition somewhat
And it’s also fantastic
“The Realm of the Elderlings” in general I’d say.
Not exactly an answer to your question, but I wanted to put in a pitch for one of my favorite talks about magic in fiction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeb_mSOgrVg
The Lord of the Rings and “The Last Unicorn” are the only works of fiction I’m aware of that have magic that works the way TF is describing it.
I appreciate it nonetheless. I’m gonna check it out here in a few, thanks!
The Chronicles of Amber. By Roger Zelazny
Did someone say The Wheel of Time? I recently read the first two books and it seriously has me hooked. Definitely has a softer magic system similar to LotR, at least so far! I definitely recommend.
The wheel of time is the greatest fantasy series ever written and i will die on this hill
You must hate women. Those characters are often terrible in that series
I’m not sure how you came to that conclusion
Because you are willing to die on that hill of the greatest series. The women in that book are not well written and most of them are kinda shit. The greatest fantasy series of all time should be better than that and you must hate women if you can ignore that to die on your hill
Can you perhaps provide an example? The vast majority of the women in WoT are strong, independent, and capable. The main female characters that start out timid or “weak” experience amazing growth over the series. Are there shitty women in the series? Yes. There are also shitty men in the series. There are over 1000 named characters throughout the series and (in my opinion) Jordan did an amazing job in the sheer diversity of types of characters portrayed.
Howl’s Moving Castle - the book showcases it a lot better than the movie. Kind of kiddush but that makes it a fast read, and I really appreciated the magic system.
Don’t miss out on the other loosely-related books in the trilogy, they’re just as cozy.
You might enjoy the Ship of Magic series by Robin Hobb
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams
I’m more of a sci-fi guy but I listened to Joe Abercrombies The First Law trilogy as audio books and holy shit was it great. Ended up devouring the 3 standalone books and the following Age of Madness trilogy that plays out in the same world. Very dark stuff and I believe fits within the requested “soft magic” setting.
Hmmm.
- „The dark is rising“ Series by Susan Cooper
- „The Moon of Gomrath“ by Alan Garner
- „The Innkeepers Song“ by Peter S. Beagle
- „Stardust“ by Neil Gaiman
- „The Night Circus“ by Erin Morgenstern
- „Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke
Those were on top of my head. There are probably many many more. Also check out other books by the authors I mentioned.
Malazan Book of the Fallen is fairly soft due to complexity and overlapping systems. A dozen or so themed sources of magic(warrens), several older sources of power (holds) and several powers specific to certain species.
Some characters can access several of these sources and one character semi-accidentally creates a supplemental system that might be more rules based. Geographical location matters and the warrens/holds are also physical realities separate from the main one with their own hazards.
Also, there are mysterious elder entities and there’s always the possibility of ascending to godlike powers through a parallel system of high houses roughly aligned to warrens and mysterious buildings but defined by an in-universe tarot deck that can be altered…
How are you defining “soft” in this case? It seems you and I have very different ideas of what that term means, and I’m curious about your perspective.
Haha! My definitions are arbitrary now that I think about it. Tons of gray area, since it’s all fiction to begin with.
My definition of ‘soft’ would be any magic system that lacks exact rules or a concrete cause and effect relationship with scale. Flexible power from a vague connection to a god, planet of origin, or elemental source would be soft. Even softer if there are dozens or hundreds of vague sources with unpredictable effects.
Specific, quantifiable effects from a concrete source (a specific spell, ritual, or x amount of a substance) would be hard.
Malazan is everything but soft. Its magic system and the world building in general look like what a programmer with a degree in reddit history would build
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
The Priory of the Orange Tree might fit what you are looking for. I’ve only learned the term soft magic just now so I might be wrong but magic in that world is mysterious and feels similar to Lord of the Rings. However there’s multiple types of magic and one of the main characters understands a bit more about one of those types and thus knows a bit about its limitations iirc so we as the reader are introduced to those a bit. Overall I’d say it probably fits.
Check out The Last Unicorn.
Basically any physics books
